Susan B. Anthony was a suffragist, abolitionist, author and speaker She was the president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.
Anthony grew up in a Quaker family, where she developed a strong commitment to social equality. Her father taught all of his children to be independent, teaching them about business and giving them responsibilities from an early age.
In the late 1830’s Anthony was forced to leave education and become a teacher to help her family when her father’s business failed. The Anthony’s moved to a farm in Rochester, New York where they became involved in the abolitionist movement. The farm became a meeting place for abolitionists like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.
In 1851, Anthony attended an anti-slavery conference where she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Anthony was also involved in the temperance movement (a product of her Quaker upbringing), which was aimed at limiting or stopping the production and sale of alcohol. She was denied the opportunity to speak at the Sons of Temperance convention in Albany because of her gender and this began her interest in women’s rights.
Anthony and Stanton founded the Women’s New York State Temperance Society in 1852 and submitted a petition to the State legislature to pass a law limiting the sale of liquor which was rejected due to the signatures being those of women and children. This, coupled with her rejection from the Sons of Temperance lead her to the idea that no one would take women in politics seriously unless they had the right to vote. Anthony and Stanton were criticised for their interest in women’s rights and as a result resigned from the Women’s New York State Temperance Society.
Anthony’s fight for women’s rights included: campaigning for more liberal divorce laws; equality in marriage; equality in the workplace and campaigning for women’s property rights which lead to the New York State Married Women’s Property Bill allowing married women to own property, keep their own wages, and have custody of their children.
Anthony helped to found the American Equal Rights Association in 1866, and in 1868 with Stanton as editor, became publisher of Revolution which published attacks on lynchings and racial prejudice in the Rochester newspapers in the 1890s. Stanton and Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association. In 1872 Anthony cast a ‘test vote’ in Rochester, New York claiming that the constitution already permitted women to vote. She was found guilty and fined $100, a fine which she never paid. She fought for women’s suffrage until her death but it was not until 1920 that the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving all adult women the right to vote, was passed.